Union Bank of India in a partnership with IBM, India has successfully implemented the server and storage system infrastructure, which enables the bank to centralise its extensive branch network across India including those in rural areas.

The scalable and flexible hardware platform brought Union Bank’s 2274 branches and 135 extension counters under a common IT framework while simultaneously enabling a higher number of transactions, thereby reducing costs and allowing Union Bank to respond better and faster to customer demand. As a result the Bank has implemented a fully integrated, centralised banking architecture, which is capable of offering banking services anywhere, anytime across all branches. This will be housed in the Bank’s new building at Powai. The Bank will leverage on this capability and ultimately bring all its branches under CBS (Core banking solution) network offering anytime, anywhere banking. As on date 1211 of the bank’s branches and extension counter are under CBS network.

In addition, IBM’s Global Technology Solutions will also provide Union Bank with disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities. Once in place, the ‘on-demand’ computing model will allow UBI to scale its computing resources according to business requirements in real time.

M V Nair, Chairman & Managing Director, Union Bank of India, while announcing this development said, “To meet our growth objectives we needed to move to a centralised environment where economies of scale, consistency and firm-wide synchronisation of data will bring significant benefits.”

Kumar Karpe, Country Manager, Financial Services Sector, IBM India said, “With the market growing rapidly, this new IT architecture will enable UBI to adapt and go to market quickly in a cost effective manner. The IBM created IT infrastructure will help Union Bank support, extend and strengthen its customer relationship with the bank.”